''James Pond: Underwater Agent'' is a 1990

platform Platform may refer to: Arts * Platform, an arts centre at The Bridge, Easterhouse, Glasgow * ''Platform'' (1993 film), a 1993 Bollywood action film * ''Platform'' (2000 film), a 2000 film by Jia Zhangke * '' The Platform'' (2019 film) * Pla ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by Vectordean and published by British company

Millennium Interactive Guerrilla Cambridge (formerly SCEE Cambridge Studio and Cambridge Studio) was a British video game developer based in Cambridge, England. The studio was founded under Sony Computer Entertainment in July 1997 through the buyout of the game deve ...

for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

and

Acorn Archimedes The Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England. The systems in this family use Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and initially ran the Arthur operating system, with later models ...

. A port to the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

was released by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

the following year. It was the first in the James Pond series of games.

Gameplay

Amiga screenshot James Pond has to solve puzzles to defeat the enemy and the gameplay revolves around finding objects to perform specific tasks, such as keys to rescue captured lobsters, or sponges to bung up the holes in leaking oil tankers. James must also fire bubbles at his enemies to trap them, before popping them to finish them off.

Plot

A nefarious

supervillain A supervillain, supervillainess or supercriminal is a major antagonist and variant of the villainous stock character who possesses Superpower (ability), superpowers. The character type is sometimes found in comic books and is often the primary ...

named "Doctor Maybe" (a play on '' Dr. No'') has overtaken the ruthless megacorporation Acme Oil Company, and is not only filling the oceans with radiation and toxic waste but even threatening all the world from his underwater lair. The

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

of the story and

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...

of the game is an intelligent,

mutated In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA replication, DNA or viral rep ...

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

mudskipper Mudskippers are any of the 23 extant species of amphibious fish from the subfamily Oxudercinae of the goby family (biology), family Oxudercidae. They are known for their unusual body shapes, preferences for semiaquatic habitats, limited terrestria ...

who is given the name "James Pond" (after the legendary spy

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

) and hired by the

British Secret Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...

to protect the seas and take out the bad guys in underwater areas. He is also suave enough to seduce numerous attractive

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are ...

s, some of whom act as double agents as is common with James Bond's love interests. The game spoofs

James Bond movies James Bond is a fictional character created by British novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, Bond has been portrayed on film in twenty-seven productions by actors Sean Connery, David Niv ...

with levels mimicking their titles, with level names like "License to Bubble" (after ''

Licence to Kill ''Licence to Kill'' is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond (literary character), J ...

''), "A View to a Spill" (after ''

A View to a Kill ''A View to a Kill'' is a 1985 spy film, the fourteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from ...

''), "Leak and Let Die" (after '' Live and Let Die'') and "From Three Mile Island with Love" (after '' From Russia with Love'').

Reception

''James Pond'' received mixed but mostly positive reviews. ''

VideoGames & Computer Entertainment ''VideoGames & Computer Entertainment'' (abbreviated as ''VG&CE'') was an American magazine dedicated to covering video games on computers, Video game console, home consoles and Arcade game, arcades. It was published by Larry Flynt Publication ...

'' gave the game seven out of ten, calling it "an entertaining and challenging undersea caper that should please just about anyone". ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...

'' gave it a four, four, three, and six, out of ten, calling it "not exciting or fun", but "a nice kids icgame". Mega Action gave James Pond a score of 82% writing: "James Pond does for fish as Sonic does for hedgehogs. It features some really cute baddies, making this game a real joy to play." Console XS gave a review score of 70%, they felt it was not a good conversion from the computer version and wrote that "Everything is far too bland and boring to excite Pond fans." MegaTech gave the Genesis version an overall score of 77% writing: "A cute and entertaining twelve-level aquatic platform game which provides plenty of fun." ''

Mean Machines ''Mean Machines'' was a multi-format video game journalism, video game magazine published between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom. History In the late 1980s ''Computer and Video Games'' (''CVG'') was largely covering the outgoing generatio ...

'' magazine, however, suggested that the Genesis port of the game was "Better than Sonic" on the front page of their then latest issue.

Legacy

''James Pond'' was followed by two sequels: '' James Pond 2: Codename Robocod'' and '' James Pond 3: Operation Starfish''. There was also a spin-off sports-themed game, entitled '' The Aquatic Games''; James Pond also a cameo in '' Rolo to the Rescue''. After

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

acquired Millennium Interactive, CyberLife retained the rights to the series and sold the property to Gameware Europe in 2003. James Pond returned in '' James Pond in the Deathly Shallows'' for the iPhone and the iPad on 30 June 2011."He's back: James Pond in the Deathly Shallows set for a June 30th iPhone splashdown"
Pocket Gamer. In September 2013, Gameware Europe launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

for a new game in the series, ''James Pond: Pond is Back!'', featuring the game's original designer, Chris Sorrell. The Kickstarter was canceled on October 7 as the funding target looked unlikely to be achieved.

References

External links

*
Game reviewArticle on James Pond
fro
Sega-16.comEnvironment Agency 'Licence to Fish' film
{{James Pond series 1990 video games Acorn Archimedes games Amiga games Atari ST games Pond, James Game Boy games Millennium Interactive games Parody video games Platformers Sega Genesis games Single-player video games Vectordean games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Richard Joseph Video games set underwater